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Research Profile


Under the umbrella of eco-evolutionary studies of hosts and parasites and other symbiont associations, in general, our current research revolves around three areas:

a)  Cophylogeny[1,4,9,11,15,17]. Cophylogeny focuses on species associations (organisms tracking organisms, such as parasites and hosts or pollinators and flowering plants) and its paradigms can be applied to other situations, such as molecular systematics (organisms or genes tracking genes)[14] and historical biogeography (organisms tracking areas).  We have developed different methods for cophylogentic methods, including PACo[17], a method for cophylogenetic analysis based on Procrustes fitting of the parasite phylogeny onto the host phylogeny, and Random TaPas[4]. Whereas currently there is a battery of tools to study cophylogentic patterns in symbiotic associations, linking patterns with mechanisms is still a major challenge. In  a recent article[1], we discuss how the incorporation of current developments in ecology and evolution can fruitfully contribute to advancement in the field. 

b) Community ecology of fish parasites[2,3,5-8,12,20]. Understanding the processes governing the distribution and assembly of biological diversity is one of the major challenges in biogeography and macroecology, and it is a prerequisite for successfully predicting global change impacts on biodiversity as a whole. Taking the so-iuy mullet Planiliza haematocheilus as study system, much of our effort has been directed to develop ways to evaluate the impact of invasive hosts on parasite communities[5,7,8,12]. In addition, we have adapted approaches from other fields[5] and developed new analytical tools[2]. Classically efforts set to study assembly rules have resorted to taxonomic diversity metrics. The quantification of diversity based on the relative abundance of functional traits (functional diversity) or on evolutionary units (phylogenetic diversity) can provide deeper and new insights into the assemblage mechanisms of ecological communities. Our main goal is to re-examine the patterns of community assembly of fish parasites from this holistic perspective to to underpin the conceptual basis of parasite functional ecology[5].

c) Phylogenetic relationships and evolution of Ligophorus spp.[13,15,16,18,19] Ligophorus is a speciose genus, whose species are host-specific and restricted to grey mullets (Mugilidae), and several congeneric species can coexist on the same host. Our lab was the first one providing a partial phyogeny of Ligophorus[19]. Given that attachment is crucial for survival in monogeneans, the morphological study of the attachment organs plays an important role in specialization and adaptation to host species. So our latest studies have applied geometric morphometrics to gain insight into the drivers of phenotypic variation in the anchors used for attachment and into the relationship between their shape and their evolutionary history[13,15,16].  

 


research areas


Projects

Cophylogenomics of a very young host-parasite model:  bridging the gap between micro- and macroevolutionary processes (COPHYHOPA). I+D+i Projects. Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain. (PID2019-104908GB-I00). (2020-2023). 

Fish parasite community structure: a functional and phylogenetic approach (FishParCS). National Programme for Promotion of Scientific and Technological Research of Excellence (CGL2015-71146-P (MINECO/FEDER)). (2016-2019). 

Parasite communities of three sympatric grey mullets in Spanish Mediterranean waters. Development and Technological Innovation Plan of Spain (CGL2008-02701). (2008-2013).

Selected Publications (i.e., a compromise between latest and favourite papers)

[1] Blasco-Costa I, Hayward A, Poulin R, Balbuena JA (2021) Next-generation cophylogeny: unravelling eco-evolutionary processes. Trends Ecol Evol 36: 907-918. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.06.006

[2] Balbuena JA, Monlleó-Borrull C, Llopis-Belenguer C, Blasco-Costa I, Sarabeev VL, Morand S (2021) Fuzzy quantification of common and rare species in ecological communities (FuzzyQ). Methods Ecol Evol 12: 1070-1079. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13588

[3] Llopis-Belenguer C, Pavoine S, Blasco-Costa I, Balbuena JA (2020) Assembly rules of helminth parasite communities in grey mullets: combining components of diversity. Int J Parasitol 50: 1089-1098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2020.06.006

[4] Balbuena JA, Pérez-Escobar OA, Llopis-Belenguer C, Blasco-Costa I  (2020) Random Tanglegram Partitions (Random TaPas): An Alexandrian approach to the cophylogenetic Gordian knot. Syst Biol 69: 1212-1230. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syaa033

[5] Llopis-Belenguer C, Blasco-Costa I, Balbuena JA, Sarabeev V, Stouffer D  (2020) Native and invasive hosts play different roles in host–parasite networks. Ecography 43: 559-568. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04963

[6] Llopis-Belenguer C, Balbuena JA, Lange K, de Bello F, Blasco-Costa I  (2019) Towards a unified functional trait framework for parasites. Trends Parasitol 35: 972-982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2019.09.003

[7] Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA & Morand S (2019) Aggregation patterns of helminth populations in the introduced fish, Liza haematocheilus (Teleostei: Mugilidae): disentangling host–parasite relationships. Int J Parasitol 49: 83-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2018.10.004

[8] Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA & Morand S (2018) Invasive parasites are detectable by their abundance-occupancy relationships: the case of helminths from Liza haematocheilus (Teleostei: Mugilidae). Int J Parasitol 48: 793-803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2018.04.001

[9] da Graça RJ, Fabrin TMC, Gasques LS, Prioli SMAP, Balbuena JA, Prioli AJ, Takemoto RM (2018) Topological congruence between phylogenies of Anacanthorus spp. (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) and their Characiformes (Actinopterygii) hosts: A case of host-parasite cospeciation. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0193408. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193408

[10] Llopis-Belenguer C, Blasco-Costa I, Balbuena JA (2018) Evaluation of three methods for biomass estimation in small invertebrates, using three large disparate parasite species as model organisms. Sci Rep 8: 3897. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-22304-x

[11] Míguez-Lozano R, Rodríguez-González A, Balbuena JA (2017) A quantitative evaluation of host-parasite coevolutionary events in three genera of monopisthocotylean monogeneans. Vie et Milieu 67(2): 103-119.

[12] Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA & Morand S (2017) Testing the enemy release hypothesis: abundance and distribution patterns of helminth communities in grey mullets (Teleostei: Mugilidae) reveal the success of invasive species. Int J Parasitol  47(10-11): 687-696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2017.05.006

[13] Rodríguez-González A, Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA (2017) Evolutionary morphology in shape and size of haptoral anchors in 14 Ligophorus spp. (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae). PLoS ONE 12(5): e0178367. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178367.

[14] Pérez-Escobar OA, Balbuena JA,  Gottschling M (2016) Rumbling orchids: How to assess divergent evolution between chloroplast endosymbionts and the nuclear host. Syst Biol 65: 51-65 https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syv070

[15] Llopis-Belenguer C, Balbuena JA, Galván-Femenía, I., Rodríguez-González A (2015) Phenotypic Buffering in a Monogenean: Canalization and Developmental Stability in Shape and Size of the Haptoral Anchors of Ligophorus cephali (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae). PLoS ONE 10(1): e0142365. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0142365

[16] Rodríguez-González A, Míguez-Lozano R, Llopis-Belenguer C, Balbuena JA (2015) Phenotypic plasticity in haptoral structures of Ligophorus cephali (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) on the flathead mullet (Mugil cephalus): a geometric morphometric approach. Int J Parasitol 45: 295-303. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020751915000399

[17] Balbuena JA, Míguez-Lozano R, Blasco-Costa I (2013) PACo: A Novel Procrustes Application to Cophylogenetic Analysis. PLoS ONE 8(4): e61048. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061048

[18] Sarabeev V, Rubtsova N, Yang T, Balbuena JA (2013) Taxonomic revision of the Atlantic and Pacific species of Ligophorus (Monogenea, Dactylogyridae) from mullets (Teleostei, Mugilidae) with the proposal of a new genus and description of four new species. Vest Zool, Suppl. 28, 112 p.

[19] Blasco-Costa I, Míguez-Lozano R, Sarabeev V, Balbuena JA (2012) Molecular phylogeny of species of Ligophorus (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae) and their affinities within the Dactylogyridae. Parasitol Int 61: 619-627. doi: 10.1016/j.parint.2012.06.004.

[20] Míguez-Lozano R, Pardo-Carranza TV, Blasco-Costa I & Balbuena JA (2012) Spatial structure of helminth communities in the golden grey mullet, Liza aurata (Actinopterygii: Mugilidae), from the Western Mediterranean. J Parasitol 98: 904-912. doi: 10.1645/GE-2897.1.


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Last update: June 2021